Apparatus for cleaning pipes



0. H. SINGLETARY. APPARATUS FOR CLEANING PIPES.

7 APPLICATION FILED APR. 18, I9I9. A 1,331,681 Patented Feb. 24,1920.

MLLQ U.

' certain new six such pairs of slots,

UNITED sirarrns PATENT OFFICE. v

oWEN n. SINGLETABY, or MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA.

APPARATUS FOR CLEANING PIPES. I

Specification of Letters Iatent.

Patented eb.- 24, 192,0.

Application filed April 18, 1919. SeriaLIi'o. 291,186. I

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, OWEN H. SINGLE- rARY,a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city and county of. Montgomery, State of Alabama, have invented and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Cleaning Pipes, of which this is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming part hereof. i i

The invention relates to apparatus intended for use in removing scale, incrustation, or the like from pi e lines, such as gas pipes, water pipes, and t e like. of the invention is to producea novel, simple, and efficient apparatus for the purpose intended and which may be advantageously employed for cleaningpipes buried in the earth and where the expense of removal would be great. These objects are all at tained in the means shown herein and the apparatus has been found to be of extraordinary efiiciency and economy in use.

The drawing shows the invention, the view in Figure 1 being of the entire appa ratus, except such parts shown as partly broken away, and in operative position, and Fig. 2 a cross-section on line 1414 showing a plurality of cutters instead of only length and is provided, preferably, (always 7 where it is to be pushed) with a tapered nozzle 2 at its front end. Slots as at 3, 3, 3, 3, are cut in its sides. Only two. airs 0 such slots are shown, set, as will e seen, at angles of 90 degrees. This is merely for clearness in the figure and for lack of space. In practice it is intended to have at least all having different angular positions, and while more may be employed six will generally be sufficient. At 4, 4, are shown cutters or toothed wheels, it being understood that a similar wheel is disposed in each pair of slots. These cuttors are journaled on pins as at 5 held in suitable openings in the Wall of tube 1. The structure will be obvious from the figure. The shape of these cutter teethis material: it being found in practice that a The object f ters work very perfectly this way;

tooth shape substantially similar to that shown-that is to say, like a sharpened gear tooth-is best. The cutter Wheels are arranged in a series from front to rear of increasing diameter, that ,of the first being only slightly larger-than, the diameter of tube 1, while that of the last is very nearly as large as. the inside diameter of the pipe to be cleaned. To the rear of tube 1a re.- ducing couplin 6 is fixed to which leads a pipe 7 by w ich the apparatus may be shoved along the pipe to be cleaned and through Which water may be fed. Coupled by union 8 is a suitable member as at 9, 9, \vhereby'the pipe 7, may be dragged forwardso as to push the tube 1 farther into the pipe being cleaned. 10 is a suitable hose supplied.

For cleaning water mains without pressure (as where off) the device is used with have been described. having been made and a length of the main pipe removed the apparatus is assembled and connected to a water about to 75 pounds pressure, and the cutter head or tube 1 introduced into the end of the main and pushed in by force two to four men usually being well able to do this work even Without hand holds or other grips on pipe 7. In this pushing the cutters 4, 4, etc., extended through two sides of the pipe 1 they are necessarily in engagement incrustation or scale inside the main on two sides. This necessitates that if they roll, as against a rack, they must cut with the opposite teeth against the other side of the incrusted pipe. In practice it is found that the outfirst cutting against one side and then against the other-the cutting being done always by that part of the wheel which is slipping and the driving of the cutter being effected by the grippin of the cutter teeth on the opposite side. 11 effect the push given by the men on the pipe 7 is translated into rotary movement of the toothed cutters. The

or gas mains supply is out such parts as a supply, say of function in this way: being coimection through which water may be A suitable excavation with the Y distinct advantageof the cutters disposed in i and adapted to closely fit the pipe construction it has been found that to clean I a 4 gas main the cutters are very satisfactory if made of ;1- steel, hardened only on the teeth and running on approximately 3 diameter pins. case be approximately 1% heavy wrought iron -pipesteel being better butnotessentialas such strain as may be put on the cutter head is limited to the amount which the water pipe 7 can sustain. It Will be understood that whenever the supply pipe 7 is pushed in an entire length, union 8 is loosened, and a second length inserted. This obviously, is necessary because of the space limits of the excavation at the end of the main. In practice it is found that a crew of three or four men can easily clean several hundred feet per day of badly fouled gas main being understood. Larger sizes would doubtless be handled slower.

In cleaning gas mains where gas under pressure is present I prefer to employ a plug as at 12, say a tapered bit of wood, partly shown in section and fitted into the end of the pip{e-see dotted lines 11, 11. A gasket or pac ing, also shown in part section, as at 13, is a rubber disk, centrally perforate, 7 but still to permit sleeves on pipe 7, as it is lengthened, to pass, The central opening through plug 12 must, of course, be large enough to v permit such sleeves to pass freely.

For extra large sizes of pipes where it is inexpedient or difficult, on account of the resistance, to push the cutter head through The tube 1 should in such of operation is so fully obvious wash-water to the end of the pipe a wire rope may be first threaded through the length of pipe to be cleaned, as by successively jointed lengths of light pole, and the cutter head then dragged through by this rope and a Windlass. This method as to need no illustrationj' Of course the water supply may be maintained through pipe 7 Whether that plpe or a rope be used to force the cutter head along,

While ordinarily it will be found sliflicient to permit the debris to escape to the frontthe nozzle at 2 serving to help the escape in this directio'nit is easily possible where the pipe is too completely obstructed to permit the debris to return with the waste 7 the'pipe' from which the operation is begun. I

Having claim is A tube cleaner consisting of a head having extending slots ar-.

a series of longitudinally ranged spirally therein, a saws. mounted in said longitudinally of said head and reach saw having teeth projecting from oppositejsides of said head, the teeth of the different saws extending unequal distances from said head.

Witness my hand this April 12, 1919.

OWEN H. SINGLEIARY. In presence of M. C. MIXoN,

' P. M. RUTINBERG,

. BEN VENSTONE.

series of rotatable described myinventioh, what I slots and extending 

